By Aite-Novarica Group Senior Strategic Advisor for Insurance Stuart Rose
A few years ago, advances in digital technology (such as smartphones, tablets, and Zoom conference calls) and the way that millennials interact and communicate (via texting and social media), gave rise to the question of whether there is a future for in-person conferences. Live events were often seen as boondoggles that could not survive in the economic and digital environment. Then COVID-19 came along, and for a while it appeared that the in-person conference industry was going to be another sad casualty of the pandemic. Fortunately, industry events have risen from the dead, and, if conferences I have attended recently are anything to go by, they have come back stronger than ever.
I have been lucky to attend many conferences over the years, and Guidewire Connections has always been near the top of my list to attend. It has great speaking and breakout sessions, but many other conferences have good content. It also has always had interesting keynote speakers. This year was no exception, with Tracy Edwards telling inspiring stories from her around-the-world sailing travels and describing how she is changing the world with her Maiden Factor Foundation, which funds projects and raises awareness of the 130 million girls worldwide who have no access to an education.
But what really differentiates Guidewire Connections from other conferences is how it treats both its insurance customers and solution technology partners. Throughout the event, senior executives continually mingle with conference attendees. In addition, pictures of insurance executives as well as quotes and testimonials are scattered throughout the conference. You really get the impression that everyone is part of one big Guidewire community. Not many other conferences take the extra effort to make you feel welcome and part of the growing family.
Continuing the theme of being part of the Guidewire community, one of the initiatives that caught my interest was based on the Guidewire Data Cooperative. All Guidewire Compare customers are eligible to join the Data Cooperative and some of them have already opted in to compare their claims performance against their industry benchmarked peers, as well as their own performance against their past results. Guidewire is now taking this initiative further by using the Guidewire Predict solution to provide predictive intelligence. The company is initially launching a predictive model to identify claims subrogation cases more accurately. But it plans to develop more models for assessing risk and data insights, especially as the number of customers in the data cooperative increases. It would be great to see this initiative expand even further and help to identify cross-industry fraudsters and provide greater good for the whole of the insurance industry.
Clearly, we are in the midst of a technology revolution that is changing the way we communicate; newsletters, books, and even emails have been supplemented with smartphones, digital images, podcasts, and video calls. However, irrespective of technology advances, face-to-face networking will always have value. Looking someone in the face and shaking their hand, or maybe in today’s environment giving them a fist bump, is priceless.
Stuart Rose is Senior Strategic Advisor – Insurance at Aite-Novarica Group. In this role, he provides advisory, research and consulting services to leading financial institutions focusing on technology in insurance with specific interest in claims fraud, customer experience, AI, predictive analytics, and data technology providers.